In the intense heat of mid-August, Oran reaches the height of its crisis.
With the plague running rampant and exterminating lives with efficiency, certain
sections of the town are cordoned off and segregated as more dangerous. Martial
law and curfews are imposed. Many people burn down their houses in the hope of
killing off the plague to spare their lives. As a result, fire sometimes burns
out of control. There are also so many deaths that there are mass burials. In
the midst of the holocaust, most of the remaining citizens have come to accept
their deprivation and confinement as part of an inevitable destiny. They no longer
think like individuals but as part of a suffering, collective whole.

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Separation from the outside world continues to be a great source of distress for
the citizens of Oran. Without outside interaction, the monotony of life is almost
unbearable. In addition, the most basic necessities are now hard to obtain, and
the people begin to feel like prisoners of war. Separated from loved ones outside
of Oran, they find it difficult to picture their faces. Everyone is despondent
as they mourn their losses; they seem to be wasting away emotionally.

Notes

It is clear that Oran is fully in the clutch of the plague. To control
the situation, curfews and martial law are imposed. The people are too numb to
react. They have become so accustomed to pain and deprivation and so despondent
over their situation that they passively accept their fate and become immune to
the mass burials.

On the allegorical level, it is clear that Camus is comparing
Oran to the countries occupied by the Nazis during World War II. In both cases,
the citizens are imprisoned and made to suffer all sorts of deprivation. Many
people are routinely and efficiently exterminated, and mass burials become commonplace.
Those who continue to exist in the midst of both holocausts waste away emotionally.
Separated from loved ones, they can no longer picture their faces. It is obvious
that both the plague and the Nazis break the human spirit. Since Camus was in
France during the war, separated from his family in Algeria, he knows first hand
the pain of suffering and deprivation.